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INITIATIVES

SoDL Initiatives encompass a range of past, ongoing, and future projects by the Lab, including but not limited to workshops, symposiums, exhibitions, and artist residencies. Through these initiatives, the Lab seeks to connect the NUS Department of Architecture with external practitioners, fostering a strong network of socially engaged design practices.

The Lab’s initiatives aim to engage with questions such as:

  1. How can creative practice research methodologies (eg. research by design) be adapted to centre community agency while remaining academically rigorous and aesthetically grounded?
  2. What hybrid frameworks can evaluate both the creative process and social impact in transdisciplinary design research?
  3. How can designers and researchers navigate the dual roles of authorship and accountability to avoid extractive or neo-colonial dynamics?

What's On

Residencies
Social by Design: Artist’s Residency Programme

The Social by Design Residency is a 12 week artist residency programme seeking to foster community-engaged design projects that address social, cultural, or environmental concerns. The Residency is intended as a space to support interdisciplinary experimentation and critical inquiry into ethical, inclusive, participatory, and sustainable design methodologies, and works produced from this programme should generate frameworks, toolkits, or prototypes that can be shared, adapted, and scaled beyond the residency.

Coming Soon

Events
Exhibition: Assembling the Social

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Events
Symposium: Assembling the Social

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Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Nam risus augue, volutpat eget vestibulum id, pulvinar vitae arcu. Nunc vestibulum non eros eu ornare. Morbi placerat dolor magna, id sagittis risus facilisis et. Etiam fringilla tellus nec nulla dapibus, vitae accumsan arcu pellentesque. In quis lacinia ligula. Donec egestas pulvinar eros sit amet hendrerit. Donec rhoncus posuere vulputate. Integer ut lacinia lectus. Donec aliquam ut augue a dictum. Vivamus ultricies erat enim, quis lacinia lorem consectetur a. Ut elit purus, auctor vel volutpat in, euismod molestie elit.

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DESCRIPTIONS
001
Social & Participatory Design Workshop: A workshop for facilitation, empathy, and design for social impact
AUG 2025
This 2-part workshop introduces the principles and practices of social and participatory design, with a focus on meaningful community engagement and facilitation. Through theoretical grounding, empathy-based tools, and hands-on facilitation activities, participants will explore how design can respond to real-world social needs.
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002
Co-Design Workshop, by Community Architects Network
AUG 2025
Trecia Lim is the Founder and Principal Architect of WeCreate Studio, a Singapore-based social enterprise dedicated to using architecture and design as a vehicle for social impact. Drawing from her kampung upbringing and industry experience in Singapore and Australia, she focuses on participatory, sustainable design that empowers communities. Since founding WeCreate Studio in 2019, she has led projects in Myanmar, India, and Cambodia, centered on community empowerment and resilience. Trecia is a registered Architect and an Adjunct Lecturer at Ngee Ann Polytechnic.
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Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Nam risus augue, volutpat eget vestibulum id, pulvinar vitae arcu. Nunc vestibulum non eros eu ornare. Morbi placerat dolor magna, id sagittis risus facilisis et. Etiam fringilla tellus nec nulla dapibus, vitae accumsan arcu pellentesque. In quis lacinia ligula. Donec egestas pulvinar eros sit amet hendrerit. Donec rhoncus posuere vulputate. Integer ut lacinia lectus. Donec aliquam ut augue a dictum. Vivamus ultricies erat enim, quis lacinia lorem consectetur a. Ut elit purus, auctor vel volutpat in, euismod molestie elit.

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DESCRIPTIONS

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Nam risus augue, volutpat eget vestibulum id, pulvinar vitae arcu. Nunc vestibulum non eros eu ornare. Morbi placerat dolor magna, id sagittis risus facilisis et. Etiam fringilla tellus nec nulla dapibus, vitae accumsan arcu pellentesque. In quis lacinia ligula. Donec egestas pulvinar eros sit amet hendrerit. Donec rhoncus posuere vulputate. Integer ut lacinia lectus. Donec aliquam ut augue a dictum. Vivamus ultricies erat enim, quis lacinia lorem consectetur a. Ut elit purus, auctor vel volutpat in, euismod molestie elit.

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ABSTRACT
001
ASSEMBLY: Creative Practice for Social Change 
April
2025
Completed
This course looks at creative practice ethics for social change in architecture. The “social” is a dynamic field encompassing society, collectives, and individual agents within their milieux and environments. Students will examine how architecture can respond through actions of care, repair, activism, occupation, and relationality. Using readings, discussions, and creative practice case studies, we discuss […]
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Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Nam risus augue, volutpat eget vestibulum id, pulvinar vitae arcu. Nunc vestibulum non eros eu ornare. Morbi placerat dolor magna, id sagittis risus facilisis et. Etiam fringilla tellus nec nulla dapibus, vitae accumsan arcu pellentesque. In quis lacinia ligula. Donec egestas pulvinar eros sit amet hendrerit. Donec rhoncus posuere vulputate. Integer ut lacinia lectus. Donec aliquam ut augue a dictum. Vivamus ultricies erat enim, quis lacinia lorem consectetur a. Ut elit purus, auctor vel volutpat in, euismod molestie elit.

COURSE CODE.
TITLE
DATE
ABSTRACT
AR5955N
ASSEMBLY: Creative Practice for Social Change 
Semester 1, 2025-26
This course looks at creative practice ethics for social change in architecture. The “social” is a dynamic field encompassing society, collectives, and individual agents within their milieux and environments. Students will examine how architecture can respond through actions of care, repair, activism, occupation, and relationality. Using readings, discussions, and creative practice case studies, we discuss how designers navigate ethics, community, and power. The course culminates in the making of 
a personal Design Toolkit—an experimental guide, zine, or prototype—that engages creative practice research, analysing and testing how ideas and values involving socio-ecological engagements might be expressed visually. 
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